枉 (wǎng): in vain

Meanings

1 in vain
2 for nothing
3 unjustly
4 to wrong (someone)

Characters

枉

wǎng

in vain / unjust / crooked

Examples

HSK 3

枉费心机，他还是没有成功。

Wǎngfèi-xīnjī, tā háishì méiyǒu chénggōng.

All his scheming was in vain - he still didn't succeed.

HSK 7-9

他被枉加罪名，实属冤屈。

Tā bèi wǎng jiā zuìmíng, shí shǔ yuānqū.

He was wrongfully charged - a true injustice.

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枉 is a classical/literary character. In modern usage it appears in set phrases like 枉然 (in vain), 枉费 (to waste in vain), 冤枉 (to be wronged). Rarely used as a standalone word in everyday speech.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Wood radical on the left - pictograph of a tree. Indexes 枉 in the wood family with 林, 树, 杆. Originally 枉 meant 'bent or twisted wood' - a crooked branch that fails to be straight. From that came the figurative senses 'wrongful, unjust, in vain.'

phonetic

王 wáng

king

Right side 王 supplies the sound with a tone shift: wáng → wǎng. 王 pictures three layers - heaven, humanity, earth - connected by a single vertical, the king as link between realms. Here purely phonetic; the regal meaning has no part. Same phonetic in 往 and 旺.